ENERGY CONSUMPTION GUIDE 57

Energy consumption guide for nursing

and residential homes

How does your building

perform?

Where is energy used?

How can you provide comfort

without waste?
Photo by courtesy of Quantum Care Ltd
ENERGY CONSUMPTION GUIDE 57

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 ENERGY CONSUMPTION GUIDE FOR NURSING AND RESIDENTIAL HOMES

INTRODUCTION

ABOUT THIS GUIDE
This Guide is intended for owners and managers
responsible for running nursing and residential
homes and, where appropriate, other homes. The
Guide presents data which allow comparison of
the energy use of the home with the results of a
survey of care homes country wide. Typical fuel
bills of the 52 homes surveyed are divided into
good, fair or poor categories.
The Guide introduces the use of energy efficiency
to reduce fuel costs in care homes and avoid waste.
The aim is to achieve a comfortable and warm
environment for residents while avoiding
excessive fuel costs.
Fuel bills can be reduced by
improving energy
management and
housekeeping at
little or no extra cost.
Low-cost measures can
give considerable savings and pay for themselves in
a short time. Other measures may be included in
the general improvements or refurbishment of a
building and can produce further savings.
Estimated savings from energy efficiency measures
can typically be:
about 10% for good housekeeping and energy
management
from 10-40% for a package of low-cost measures.
The benefits of energy efficiency are therefore:
lower fuel bills
comfort in the home maintained to a
high standard
fewer environmentally damaging emissions.
THE SURVEY
Energy surveys were carried out in 52 UK nursing
and residential care homes. The age and construction
of the homes examined ranged from converted
Victorian buildings with solid walls to modern
purpose-built well-insulated homes with cavity walls.

The energy use information is presented in two

forms cost () and energy use (kWh). Each home
is placed in one of three bands according to the
total cost and amount of energy used, both per
unit of floor area and per bed space. The categories
used are good, fair and poor, and have been set
OBTAIN FUEL BILLS

HOW DOES YOUR HOME PERFORM?

Follow the steps below to identify the energy performance of your home. The performance of your
CALCULATE FUEL
home can then be compared with those in the survey (figures 1 and 2).
CONSUMPTION
Step 1 Obtain fuel bills for previous 12 months.
Step 2 Work out your annual fuel consumption, separating electricity from gas or oil. Consumption
can be measured in terms of fuel used, or cost.
ASSESS SIZE Fuel use: Generally mains gas and electricity consumption in kWh can be read directly from
OF HOME fuel bills. If other units are used, or if you use a different fuel, use the conversion factors
supplied on page 3.
Fuel cost: Read directly from your bills, but remember to exclude any standing charges.
Step 3 Measure the floor area of the home in square metres (m2). If this is not practical, simply count
CALCULATE ENERGY
PERFORMANCE the number of bed spaces in the home*.
Step 4 Divide your electricity and gas or oil use by either floor area or number of bed spaces.
Step 5 Compare your results with those in the survey (figures 1 and 2).
ASSESS THE *This figure uses an average floor area of 40m2 per bedspace and will be less accurate.
PERFORMANCE OF
YOUR HOME

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CATEGORISING YOUR HOME

using the data collected during the energy surveys. HOW TO CATEGORISE YOUR HOME
The 25% of homes with the lowest fuel bills or Once you have carried out the instructions in the
consumption are used to classify the good category, box How does your home perform? (page 2) you
the 25% with the highest fuel bills or consumption have the information required to categorise your
to classify the poor, and the remaining 50% make home. The following examples, using annual
up the fair category. Electricity and gas are shown energy use and annual energy costs, will help you.
separately so that you can relate them directly to If the total consumption of gas or oil in the
your fuel bills. Figure 2 shows a breakdown of home is 120 000 kWh per year and the floor area
energy cost in terms of /m2 and /bed space. is unknown but there are 10 bed spaces, then
Prices used are based on a country-wide average of the annual consumption is 12 000 kWh/bed.
fuel tariffs over the period 1992 to 1995. The Figure 1 shows that the home would therefore
consumption data is based on electricity and gas fall into the fair category for gas/oil consumption.
bills for 1993 to 1994. Or, if the total cost of electricity consumption
is 6/m2 of floor area, then using figure 2 the
home would be placed in the poor category.
This may therefore indicate that whilst all
kWh/m2 247 417
kWh/m2 energy usage should be addressed, the priority
Gas /oil GOOD FAIR POOR is to look at electricity consumption.
use
kWh/bed
kWh/bed 9633 16263
It should be noted that, due to climate differences,
kWh/m2 44 79
kWh/m2 homes located in southern England should require
Electricity GOOD FAIR POOR less space heating fuel and should therefore expect
use
kWh/bed
kWh/bed 1704 3173
to perform slightly better than the average. Similarly
homes in northern Scotland may perform slightly
worse than average due to the colder northern
Figure 1 Annual energy use in the care home
climate. Variations between regions will not be great
however, and with good energy management in the
care home, differences should not be significant.
/bed 96 163
/bed
Gas /oil GOOD FAIR POOR
cost
Other external factors which increase the energy
/m2
/m2 2.5 4.2 use of a home include exceptionally cold weather
/bed 126 228 and high occupancy. If the fuel bills cover a winter
/bed where the weather was particularly cold or where
Electricity GOOD FAIR POOR
cost more people than normal lived in the home, then
/m2
/m2 3.2 5.8 this can mean higher fuel bills than usual. It is
Based on cost of gas/oil 1.0p/kWh, electricity 7.37p/kWh (excluding VAT) possible to correct for cold weather using degree
day data[1]. A modern home, which is likely to
Figure 2 Annual energy costs in the care home have been built with higher insulation standards,
should score relatively high. Many care homes are
old buildings and the data used reflects this over
Conversion of fuel use into kWh 80% of the homes in the survey were built before
Energy will be supplied to the home in Multiply by the 1960s.
the form of gas or oil and electricity. In 1MJ 0.278
order to compare energy use with the 1 therm 29.3 [1]Department of the Environment, Practical
values shown in figure 1, each fuel must 100 ft3 of natural gas 30.0 energy saving guide for smaller businesses,
be converted into units of kWh. If the 1 tonne of liquefied London, DOE, November 1993.
energy use shown on your fuel bills is petroleum gas (LPG) 13.78
not in units of kWh then the following 1 litre of gas oil (35 sec) 10.6
factors should be used for conversion: 1 litre light fuel oil (200 sec) 11.2

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ENERGY COSTS

Energy and the environment

The burning of fossil fuels coal, gas and oil to
generate energy also releases a number of
environmentally damaging gases into the
atmosphere. These include carbon dioxide (CO2),
which is primarily responsible for global warming,
and oxides of sulphur and nitrogen which cause
acid rain. The following shows the CO2 emissions
associated with various fuels:
A typical 30 bed care home categorised as fair,
using 320 kWh/m2 of gas and 50 kWh/m2 of
electricity would be responsible for the emission
of over 120 tonnes of CO2 every year.
It is worth noting that the CO2 emission
associated with the use of 1 kWh of electricity is
more than three times that for 1 kWh of gas.

Gas 0.21 kg/kWh of fuel used Savings in electricity consumption, no matter how
Oil 0.29 kg/kWh of fuel used small, will therefore produce greater environmental
Electricity 0.70 kg/kWh of fuel used benefits than similar savings in gas or oil.

BREAKDOWN OF ENERGY USE

To enable an effective plan of action to be made it
is important to understand where energy is used in Space heating 56.5%
the care home. Figures 3 and 4 show the average
Lighting 5.1%
fuel cost and consumption broken down according
to use. The miscellaneous category includes uses Misc/other 12.1%
such as laundry, and small power such as
Cooking 7.8%
televisions and hair driers. It is clear that the most
significant energy use is space heating, accounting Refrigeration 1.0%
for 57% of total use, and hot water generation Hot water 17.5%
which accounts for 18%.

Lighting, whilst accounting for only 5% of energy Figure 3 Energy use (kWh) breakdown
use, actually makes up 20% of the total energy
cost. Lighting forms a greater proportion of total
fuel costs than domestic hot water generation.
The figures highlight the fact that where electricity
Space heating 30.1%
is used, for example for refrigeration and lighting,
it makes up a proportionately larger amount of Lighting 20.0%
total fuel costs than gas or oil. Clearly the Misc/other 32.5%
implication is that any reduction in electricity use
Refrigeration 3.9%
gives a greater cost saving than an equivalent
reduction in gas consumption. Cooking 4.2%

Hot water 9.3%

HOW TO REDUCE FUEL BILLS IN CARE HOMES
It is possible to make considerable savings in fuel
bills in a care home, often for little or no cost, by Figure 4 Energy cost breakdown
managing energy use and using energy efficiently.
Introducing energy efficient improvements during
day-to-day maintenance or as part of
refurbishment will also give fuel bill savings.

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GOOD HOUSEKEEPING MEASURES

GOOD ENERGY HOUSEKEEPING Meter readings, kWh (000s)

Using this Guide to compare the gas or oil and 50
electricity use of the home with other homes is a Gas
major step in the management of fuel costs. It is
important to read gas and electricity meters 40
regularly, for example at least at the end of every
month, and calculate how much fuel has been
used. Plotting these figures on a graph such as the 30

one illustrated will highlight significant changes.

If any increase cannot be explained by, for
20
example colder weather, then it is appropriate to
investigate further. Reasons for an increase in fuel
bills may include:
10
heating and hot water thermostats set too
high and timer settings changed Electricity
equipment left on or windows left open
insulation damaged or misplaced. J F M A M J J A S O N D
Month
Once monitoring has been carried out for more
than 12 months you can compare readings with More information on energy management and
previous years to achieve year-on-year reductions good energy housekeeping is given in Good
in energy consumption in the home. Practice Guide 193 (GPG 193) Good housekeeping
in nursing and residential homes (available from
Other ways of managing fuel bills include: BRECSU, see page 6).
carrying out an energy efficiency survey in
the home ENERGY EFFICIENT IMPROVEMENTS
running an energy saving campaign Energy efficient improvements will reduce fuel bills
incorporating energy efficiency in general while ensuring the same or better levels of comfort
maintenance surveys for residents. Many of these measures cost very
checking equipment use little and pay for themselves in a short time. These
carrying out regular building energy checks. measures can be addressed as part of:
general maintenance
planned improvements
major works during refurbishment.

General maintenance and housekeeping

Energy efficiency in maintenance includes:
keeping thermostats and programmers
set correctly
repairing dripping hot water taps
ensuring doors and windows close properly
checking draughtstripping on doors and
windows
avoiding the use of supplementary
electric heaters
repairing damaged or misplaced hot water
cylinder and pipe insulation.

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OPPORTUNITIES FOR ENERGY IMPROVEMENTS

Planned improvements FUEL COSTS AND TARIFFS

Planned low-cost improvements could include: Fuel costs will vary between different regions. In
installing draughtstripping addition, different regional electricity companies
fitting push-button light switches in cupboards offer a range of tariffs. If a significant proportion of
and storerooms electricity is used at night or during the weekend
replacing conventional bulbs with compact there may be a tariff available which could reduce
fluorescent bulbs or fluorescent strip lighting the electricity bill for the home.
installing thermostats and thermostatic
radiator valves Larger homes may also benefit from switching to a
improving loft, pipe and hot water cylinder monthly billing system. Discounts are also usually
insulation available if bills are paid by direct debit. Contact
installing cavity wall insulation your fuel supplier for more details.
installing night temperature setback for the
heating system.
FURTHER READING
Energy improvements may also be carried out as
part of a general refurbishment. Other Guides available within the Department of
the Environments Energy Efficiency Best Practice
Energy improvements in refurbishment programme give detailed information on energy
Refurbishing any part of a home is an important efficient refurbishment, insulation, heating,
time to consider energy efficiency improvements. ventilation, lighting and draughtstripping.
They can often be included at relatively little extra These are available from the BRECSU Enquiries
cost, with considerable benefits. Improvements Bureau. Contact details are given at the bottom of
could include: this page.
insulating solid walls in older homes (built
before the 1940s)
installing a condensing boiler when replacing
the heating system
fitting heating controls such as weather
compensation
installing new lighting controls
fitting double glazing (when replacing windows)
fitting trickle vents
decentralising the domestic hot water
using energy efficient appliances.

The Governments Energy Efficiency Best Practice programme provides impartial, Energy Consumption Guides: compare energy use in
authoritative information on energy efficiency techniques and technologies in industry and specific processes, operations, plant and building types.
buildings. This information is disseminated through publications, videos and software,
Good Practice: promotes proven energy-efficient techniques
together with seminars, workshops and other events. Publications within the Best Practice
through Guides and Case Studies.
programme are shown opposite.
New Practice: monitors first commercial applications of new
Visit the website at www.energy-efficiency.gov.uk energy efficiency measures.
Call the Environment and Energy Helpline on 0800 585794
Future Practice: reports on joint R&D ventures into new
For further specific information on: energy efficiency measures.
Buildings-related projects contact: Industrial projects contact:
General Information: describes concepts and approaches
Enquiries Bureau Energy Efficiency Enquiries Bureau yet to be fully established as good practice.
BRECSU ETSU
Fuel Efficiency Booklets: give detailed information on
BRE Harwell, Oxfordshire
specific technologies and techniques.
Garston, Watford WD25 9XX OX11 0RA
Tel 01923 664258 Tel 01235 436747 Introduction to Energy Efficiency: helps new energy managers

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Fax 01923 664787 Fax 01235 433066 understand the use and costs of heating, lighting, etc.
E-mail brecsuenq@bre.co.uk E-mail etsuenq@aeat.co.uk CROWN COPYRIGHT FIRST PRINTED SEPTEMBER 1996